Grayson compares Tea Party to KKK

An image of a Klu Klux Klan cross on fire with the name of the Tea… (handout, the Committee…)

October 22, 2013

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson is ruffling feathers again — this time with a fundraising appeal that compares the tea-party movement to the Ku Klux Klan.

In a campaign email sent Monday, the Orlando Democrat includes the transcript of an interview he did recently on MSNBC in which Grayson said that the politics of the government shutdown had turned many Americans away from the tea party.

"At this point, the tea party is no more popular than the Klan," Grayson said.

The email then takes that comparison one step further by including a photograph of a burning cross with Klansmen in the background. The cross then becomes the "T" in the words "Tea Party" transposed over the picture. Below is the caption: "Now you know what the 'T' stands for."

Jorge Bonilla, one of the Republicans running against Grayson in a heavily Democratic district that includes Osceola County and parts of Orange and Polk, criticized the photo.

"The depiction of burning crosses in Congressman Alan Grayson's most recent fundraising ask is despicable and needlessly hurtful to the many millions of families that still deal with the wounds of racial prejudice," wrote Bonilla.

"What's worse, he does so for no other reason than to troll for donations for his re-election campaign," he added.

The controversy is reminiscent of Grayson's first term in office, in which he made headlines — and enemies —with heated rhetoric. That includes describing a lobbyist-turned-Fed-adviser as a "K Street whore" and famously saying that the GOP health-care plan was for sick patients to "die quickly."

Ultimately, Grayson lost his first re-election bid in 2010 to now U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden.

But he rebounded in 2012 with a win in a newly drawn Central Florida seat that leans heavily Democratic — potentially giving Grayson the leeway to push the envelope again. Even so, Grayson largely has avoided controversy in his second term. At least until now.

When asked about the KKK imagery, Grayson was unapologetic. In a statement sent through a spokesman, Grayson said, "If the shoe fits, wear it."

He then cited a trip by President Barack Obama to Orlando as evidence.

"Regarding the image that the campaign circulated, members of the Tea Party have engaged in relentless racist attacks against our African-American president. For example, when the president visited my home of Orlando, Tea Party protesters shouted 'Kenyan Go Home,' " Grayson said. "Other examples include Tea Party chants of 'Bye Bye Blackbird' and Tea Party posters saying 'Obama's plan: White Slavery …"

"One could go on and on, because there is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation," he said.